16-year-old dies after falling from Royal Caribbean cruise ship

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A teenage passenger lost his footing while trying to get onto the balcony of his room aboard Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas and plummeted to his death, officials say.

The 16-year-old, identified by the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office as Laurent Mercer, was with his family on the cruise, which was docked in Haiti when the fall happened Jan. 11, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The teen apparently did not have the key card to his room and was trying to get from a neighboring 8th floor balcony to his own when he slipped, falling to the pier below.

The cruise ship’s medical staff performed CPR on Mercer, but he had suffered “major head trauma” and died of his injuries, the medical examiner’s office said in a statement to the Sentinel.

Royal Caribbean said in a statement that they are “saddened by the loss of one of our guests in a tragic accident.”

The death comes after almost 500 people on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise ship were sickened by a gastrointestinal illness, forcing the cruise to end early.

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